


Sweet Dreams

by cartoonidiot23



Category: Archie Comics
Genre: Coming Out, Gay Panic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-07 22:27:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15917520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cartoonidiot23/pseuds/cartoonidiot23
Summary: Reggie has recently been troubled by some strange dreams that are affecting his relationship with the gang.





	Sweet Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> please note that i'm an artist not a writer so if this sucks thats why lol, also warning, i do use the q slur once in this chapter. also sorry for any mistakes or typos, i tend to miss things alot.

“Chee, I just don’t know Arch…”

“Cool it, Mantle.”

Archie took a step closer, the gap between them so small Reggie got a face full of his cheap cologne. He had a sly look on his face, staring up at Reggie through half lidded eyes, topping it all off with an infuriatingly smug, toothy grin. Reggie was finding it hard to keep the goofy smile off his face as the blood rushed to his cheeks, he quickly turned his head away and looked into the distance in a futile attempt to hide it.

“Besides, we all know…”

He slowly slid his finger along Reggie’s jawline, guiding his head back around to face him.

“How bad you want to~.”

Archie rolled his eyes dramatically as he said it, just to emphasise how much he reveled in messing with the guy. Reggie only grew more flustered, — and sweaty — quickly straightening his posture, making himself look quite stiff and awkward. Despite his best efforts he couldn’t take his eyes off of his old rival.

“W-well, what about Veronica?” Reggie sputtered.

Archie let the question hang in the air for a few seconds, raising his eyebrows in amusement.

“Veronica?”

Reggie nodded dumbly.

“To hell with Veronica!” Archie exclaims as he, quite literally, sweeps Reggie off his feet and plants a long, passionate kiss square on his lips.

Reggie springs up from his sleep like he had just had a horrible nightmare. He sits there for a few seconds, processing what had just happened before slapping both hands to his cheeks.

“Not again!!”

-

After the usual morning routine, the troubled young lad makes his way to school. If you got close you could feel the tension oozing off of him, but from a distance it was easily reflected in his ramrod straight arms shoved into his pockets, his nervous speed walk, and how it seems he used twice as much grease as normal to glue his hair down to his scalp.

‘This is getting outta hand, I swear this is the fourth time this week!’ Reggie thought, ‘I don’t think I could even look the guy in the eye at this point.’

To Reggie’s dismay, he spots the red haired culprit up ahead, laughing and chatting with his arm thrown around Jughead’s shoulder, and Jughead’s around his waist.

‘Shoot! There he is! Okay, just act natural…’

As he walked past the pair, attempting to keep his distance without veering onto the side walk, he simply hoped they had forgotten he existed.

“Hey Rat!” Archie jeered, “How goes it?”

Despite his best efforts, all Reggie could do was squeak out a pathetic, “Hi…” and quicken his pace so that he was practically running from them. Y’know, natural.

-

Archie and Jughead stood frozen in the same position they were in when they greeted Reggie for a good second or two, processing the strange interaction they had just been put through. Archie took a step back, and stared off after Reggie, crossly jutting his fists into his hips.

“I tell ya Jug, he’s been acting real weird towards me all week!”

“I’ll say, the poor guy looked terrified! What’d you do to him, Arch?”

“I haven't done a thing, just all of a sudden he’s decided to avoid me!”

Jughead looked to the ground, scratching his chin and tapping his foot.

“You reckon Ronnie has something to do with it?”

Archie began to continue his path towards the school, Jughead followed suit.

“They seem to be getting along just fine, though!”

Jughead paused to think for another moment.

“You sure you didn’t do anything to him?”

“Jughead!” Archie raised his fist.

Jughead put his hands up in mock surrender, “Alright, alright!”

Another few moments of silence as they gradually crept closer to the school.

“You want me to talk to him after school?” Jughead offered.

“Gee, would ya?”

“Sure pal, what are friends for?”

Archie threw his arm around Jughead’s shoulder once more.

“Aw, what a guy!”

-

After a fairly uneventful day, by Riverdale High’s standards, Jughead quickly made his way out of school to try and catch Reggie before he made his way home. Surprisingly, this wasn’t too hard, as he spotted the guy leaning against the outside walls of the building, staring daggers into his sneakers.

“Hey, Reg.” Jughead called, startling him out of his nervous trance.

“Oh, hey needle nose, haven’t seen you in a while.”

Jughead walked up and leaned up beside him before saying anything else.

“Everything all right between you and Arch?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”

Jughead found it surprising that Reggie was trying to feign ignorance after he was witness to the awkward altercation between them that very morning.

“Uhh, cause Archie’s been telling me you’ve been actin’ like he was gonna chew your head off all week.”

Rather than trying to deflect, Reggie just continued to stare at the ground, furrowing his brow and frowning. Finally, he stood up from the wall and looked at Jughead.

“You can keep a secret, right?”

Jughead was startled by the sudden willingness to open up, but decided to go along with it.

“Of course, buddy.” He pat the side of Reggie’s arm reassuringly a few times for good measure.

“Alright… cause… well…”

What little cool Reggie had left was quickly unravelling, he brought up a hand to chew at his nails and looked around frantically to make sure no one was in sight, let alone ear-shot.

“All week, I keep having dreams where… where… Archie…”

The anticipation was killing him.

“Kisses me.”

A few beats passed, Jughead’s expression didn’t change.

“That’s it?”

Reggie tightly clasps both hands onto Jughead’s shoulders, leaning a considerable amount of his body weight onto him.

“Y-you don't understand! The thing is, they’re not nightmares, Jug! They’re some of the best dreams I’ve ever had! I-I wanna kiss him so bad,” he stared at the ground for a moment, before whipping his head back up to look Jug in the eyes, “God, sometimes I even wanna kiss you!”

Still leaning on his shoulders, Reggie pushes his head into Jughead’s chest, too ashamed to look at him. Without a word, Jughead guides Reggie over to a nearby bench and sits him down, Reggie gingerly raises his head back up to meet his gaze.

“Y’know Reggie, if you’d told anyone else in this hick town, they’d either beat you to a pulp, or they’d tell you that these dreams were just a weird manifestation of your intense rivalry with Archie.”

Reggie perked up at that idea, a hopeful expression briefly meeting his features.

“…But I’m not anyone else.”

Reggie droops.

“And I think it’s pretty clear what this really means.”

Silence filled the air as they stared intensely into each others eyes. Reggie’s looked completely dumbfounded, eyes wide and jaw hanging, like he was trying his hardest to perpetuate himself in this state of denial. It didn’t last though, to Jughead’s shock, Reggie’s face scrunched up as his eyes quickly welled with tears.

“Oh God!” He cried, throwing himself at Jughead, wrapping his arms around his waist as he once again buried his head in his chest. His shoulders shook violently as he choked out barely restrained sobs.

Jughead’s arms were still raised in shock when he looked over and noticed two bystanders had stumbled upon the scene. Jughead began stroking Reggie’s hair with one hand and using the other to shoo away the two nosy women, who fled quickly.

“Hey, Reggie, It’s alright, you don’t gotta cry.” Jughead wasn’t so good at this comforting stuff.

“Why not? This sucks!”

“It’s not that bad…”

Reggie quickly raised his head and whapped his hands back down onto Jughead’s shoulders.

“Not that bad!? Jughead, I’m a frigging queer,” his voice shook as he spoke, like he was fighting an internal battle just to get the words out, “you could never understand how bad that is!”

Jughead managed to restrain from rolling his eyes, for Reggie’s sake. 

“Reggie, you’re not alone in this…” Jughead gave a few moments for his words to sink in.

Reggie’s eyes widened in simultaneous shock and relief.

“You mean, you’re…?”

Jughead nodded. That seemed to stop the waterworks.

“Wow…” was all he could seem to manage. He let his arms slide weakly off of Jughead’s shoulders as he pivoted away to stare at his old friend, the floor. Although his relief was clear, he was still sniffling and wiping tears frantically. Jughead cautiously slipped a comforting arm around Reggie’s shoulder.

“See bud, I know how you feel, really, and I’m telling you, it’s not that bad…”

“…You sure about that?”

“Well, no one gives me any grief for it, I like to think I’m pretty blatant.”

Reggie sniffles, “Yeah, I guess… But you’re Jughead, everyone just expects that kinda thing from you! If I suddenly went off girls, I’m pretty sure people would notice.

“You’re not still into girls?

Reggie thought for a second.

“I dunno Jug, I feel like the part of me telling me I am is just wishful thinking…”

“Well, when you really think about it, you only ever really chased girls to compete with other guys, or to show off to Archie…”

Reggie sunk his head into his hands.

“And Ronnie told me a while ago that you’ve never actually kissed her…”

“…I was that obvious, huh?”

“Well…”

Reggie groans loudly.

“Only to me, bud, only to me. I don’t think anyone else woulda noticed.”

That didn’t seem to make him feel any better, and Jughead was struggling for what else to say.

“Listen…” Jughead began, slowly, “My parents are out til tomorrow, how about you come over and we can marathon some cheesy horror flicks?”

Jughead wasn’t sure if that was a lame offer, but he seemed to like the idea. Reggie sniffled and managed a small smile, looking up at his lanky friend.

“If you don’t mind…”

“Hey,” Jughead said, hoisting Reggie up to his feet, “What are friends for?”

**Author's Note:**

> not sure if i'll add more onto this, depends on if i feel like it/if this gets any reads at all since im pretty sure archie is a dead fandom lmao


End file.
